Bristol Aggie project funding included in House bill

By Katie Lannan State House News Service

Monday

Jun 4, 2018 at 2:36 PM

The House on Wednesday plans to take up a $3.87 billion bill, the product of nearly 100 days of negotiations, which authorizes extensive borrowing and spending on state facility repairs and other capital needs.

BOSTON — The House on Wednesday plans to take up a $3.87 billion bill, the product of nearly 100 days of negotiations, which authorizes extensive borrowing and spending on state facility repairs and other capital needs.

The bill calls for $10 million to produce a final environmental impact report and environmental impact statement for the North-South Rail Link that would connect Boston's North Station and South Station, and $80.6 million to renovate a building at the William A. Hinton state laboratory in Jamaica Plain.

Lawmakers also packed the bill with earmarks, including noise pollution reduction along Interstate 93 in Somerville, projects at Bristol County Agricultural High School in Dighton and Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School in Northampton, and ice rink work in Medford, Arlington, Canton, Lynn and Woburn.

A six-member conference committee helmed by Ways and Means Chairs Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez and Sen. Karen Spilka filed their report last Wednesday, and Speaker Robert DeLeo's office on Friday evening notified representatives that they should be prepared to take up the bill (H 4549) at Wednesday's formal session.

The borrowing, if signed into law, will add to the state's already high debt burden per capita, which Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr described last month as "staggering." The Senate's fiscal 2019 budget includes $2.47 billion for debt service, according to Spilka, an increase $26.6 million over this year.

A year ago, S&P Global Ratings lowered the state's bond rating to AA from AA+, a decision tied to debt-service concerns. The Wall Street rating agency said it was primarily concerned with the state's failure to rebuild its reserves after the Great Recession, and concluded it viewed the state's "modest reserves, tendency to experience revenue volatility, elevated debt levels, and below-average pension funded ratio as commensurate with a 'AA' rating."

Gov. Charlie Baker last week signed a $1.8 billion housing bond bill and Baker is pressing the Legislature to approve his $1.4 billion environmental bond.

The inclusion of a project in a bond bill, even if it is signed by the governor, does not guarantee that a project will occur since the executive branch can only advance a limited number of projects under the state's annual borrowing cap.

Passed by the House in November and the Senate in February, the capital facility bond bill spent 97 days in conference committee before the negotiators filed their compromise version with the House clerk.

The bill authorizes $950 million for repairs and improvements at public higher education campuses, $760.5 million for court facilities, and $500 million for public safety and security facilities, including $4 million for renovations at the State Police headquarters in Framingham.

When the Senate passed its version of the bill on Feb. 12, Spilka said some of the state's trial court buildings "are literally falling apart."

Gov. Charlie Baker filed his five-year, $3.8 billion borrowing bill on May 31, 2017, and the House's bond bill was based on that legislation. Testifying on Baker's bill at an October hearing, Administration and Finance Secretary Michael Heffernan cited an "immediate" need to release higher education funds so schools could prepare for construction over the summer, when students are off-campus.

"These are older buildings, but you need to put deferred maintenance into these buildings so they can continue to serve their purpose and be upgraded for a 21st-century college campus," Heffernan told the House Bonding Committee.

The legislation also includes $2 million to improve wireless internet accessibility at the State House, and $13.465 million for a phased renovation of the John W. McCormack state office building at One Ashburton Place, where plumbing problems have forced temporary closures twice so far this year.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.